Discussions

The Impending Loss of Population and what to do to Stem the Tide  
 
I'm starting this post to ask how can we ensure that our city continues to grow in the future. So here's the issue.  
 
Canadians have a very low birth rate – currently 1.6 on average, absent immigration a country generally needs a birth rate of over 2 (around 2.1) in order to maintain it's population. Thankfully Canada has a strong immigration rate, but a good portion of that population tends to migrate towards the larger cities, and stay in the southern Ontario/Quebec corridor, or BC and Alberta, where economies tend to be stronger, and for the most part weather is often more mild.  
 
Further, even immigrants in the future are going to become harder and harder to find.  
 
Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, recently said that population collapse could be the gravest problem of our time. He questions where immigration is going to come from when over half of our worlds countries have birth rates below replacement levels.  
 
So I ask, what can Brandon do to ensure that we continue to grow in the future?  
 
I think future growth is important, first because it helps ensure that we have a steady flow of people to purchase our houses/condos/real estate from us when we ultimately leave them behind. In some parts of the world real estate is in a decline because of the lack of new people being born. For Canadians our equity in real estate tends to make up a significant portion of our savings and in particular our retirement savings, seeing that equity depreciate or properties left vacant because of a lack of growth, or even depopulation cannot be a very good thing for our city. Further, population growth is good for innovation and I think just overall to a communities well being.  
 
I think more can be done for Brandon and Westman, I'm not sure if Maple Leaf was the last major industry development in our city, but I have to ask, has it really been 20 years since we have seen a major development of that size? Can't more be done by our politicians and wealthiest individuals to attract more industry to our city?  
 
So here are some of my thoughts, what are some of the others that Brandon has?  
 
>: Perhaps our city and region can attempt to specifically attract certain groups of people which tend to have larger families. Larger families means more kids, and likely continued growth for the future. More traditional and orthodox Catholics and Protestant Christians often have larger families. Perhaps more can be done to assist those religious communities with attracting members from outside of the Westman area. Perhaps we can make Brandon a Bible belt city. Steinbach, Winkler and Morden are good examples of some of the fastest growing areas of Manitoba, whose growth is related in part to the higher birth rate of more traditional Mennonite families in those areas.  
>: Home schooled families tend to have larger children – Perhaps we can put more funds and resources into the homeschooling program, and advertise Brandon as a hub for parents wanting to home-school their children.  
>: Entrepreneurship and innovation are perhaps the two largest drivers of overall market growth and industry, so why not create an organization within the city whose plan and focus is to put Brandon on the map for being the number one city in the country to foster both.  
>: As far as innovation goes, petitioning the provincial government to bring an engineering faculty to Brandon university would likely go miles.  
>: I once heard someone suggest that for tourism perhaps there could be an attempt to make Brandon the waterslide capital of Canada much like Wisconsin Dells is the waterslide capital of the US, this would obviously require some significant investment into the city.  
>: Brandon is home to a large Koch Chemical plant – The Koch family is also one of the world's wealthiest, and some of the biggest philanthropists, perhaps our politicans could be asking if there is anyway they can help put us on the map?  
>: My personal favorite is to put Brandon on the map by offering special financial incentives for charities who headquarter here, and incentives for anyone looking to start a charity to begin it in Brandon.  
 
So those are some of my thoughts, what are yours Brandon?

It's mostly immigrants who help a town/city grow and develop and Brandon don't offer much to attract immigrants.

Well for starts. Let’s get a airport.

You call that a airport....... why do we need to go to Winnipeg to fly to Toronto.  
Or anywhere else... Oh this is a much needed improvement, but .......

I don’t think Brandon is really shrinking. Last time I checked we were at 50000 Aprox. The same number we have been for 10 years or so. While I agree we are not really growing. We are holding steady and not really shrinking in my honest opinion. I don’t know if I want a large influx of people here. Brandon is a nice city with a small town vibe. I used to think it was a good town to raise a family in. But we’re starting to really get hit with some social problems that might want me to relocate to a smaller town outside of Brandon. If we added a whole bunch more people here how would these problems change.  
 
A lot of your ideas are good. But instead of being a keyboard warrior. Take them to city council and try and make them happen. Ebrandon is just a silly Internet forum in all retrospect. If your committed to Brandon. Join the council and bring your ideas up in a place where they could be put to use.

The more funds that are invested in homeschooling the more those whose money is going into it will want to have control over curriculums. Manitoba is one of the best provinces in regards to homeschooling and receive $0.00. I vote to leave homeschoolers out of it and let them just do their thing.

that has cost us a boatload of money but too few flights!  
Who's fault is that? Yup, people! No one looks at the fact that the majority of residents cannot afford to fly anywhere but brandon has to have a expanded airport and all the bells and whistles right?  
People will always shop for the best price for flights too so why think they will pay extra just to utilize our airport?

But isn't Brandon one of the cities that the Feds want to bring more immigrant families to settle here? I think that was announced about 6 weeks ago.  
 
I know that a few of the best/bigger employers here will help spouses of professionals obtain employment if they decide to move here. So if they do the sons and daughters no doubt are under that umbrella. Nothing Brandon likes better than hiring scores of people from the same family tree.

Those Mennonite areas are where the govt. reserves historically were when the agreements were made to attract the Mennonites to the area, so naturally, those areas will expand more due to the historical factor & certain beliefs & traditions unique to these areas. BTW, there are many, many Mennonites in the Brandon region, but not all have large families.  
 
To provide services for homeschoolers would not necessarily attract any more of them. That is not why people homeschool, and homeschoolers are often quite resourceful.  
 
Also, there is no official program for homeschoolers. Often it is independent and parent funded. It needs to stay that way to be most effective. Once govt sticks their fingers in it, it might as well be called public school with greater invasiveness into the family unit, that is no longer homeschooling.  
 
By the way, I had to laugh at your typo, that said "homeschoolers have larger children," that was funny. ;) I do know what you meant, but many homeschoolers that I know have very small families.  
 
I think a better option child & family-wise, would be opportunities that would encourage outside learning for ALL children, and activities (and attractions) that encourage families spending time together, regardless of educational instruction choices. That is attractive.  
 
I do agree that Brandon is most likely staying steady, and trying to find its balance. Crime seems to be increasing too. To grow quickly brings a myriad of negative issues that can be very difficult to overcome. I think it needs to be given time, and presenting ideas to council on specific ways to increase activities and attractions is a great idea.  
 
I think Brandon First is doing a stellar job. Maybe talk to them too & get involved?

There were 2 threads about climate change and how we are supposed to reduce our "footprint" on the world.  
now on this thread we are talking about expansion, and how we need to get more flights, etc here  
 
So which is it???

One must decide what type of people do you wish to attract to Brandon. Do you want young families with children and if so are their sufficient job opportunities and housing for said families? The second category of people you may wish to attract are seniors. Individuals who are retired - with seniors comes job opportunities - as a senior ages they require assistance either through home care, private individuals hired to do yard work, shopping, house cleaning, transporting them from point "A" to point "B", etc. Most seniors that would move into Brandon would in all probability either build a new home or purchase one. Some would probably move into a seniors apartment complex - either way there would be a demand for further housing - thereby creating more jobs. Brandon must decide what category or individual they wish to attract, and make the necessary adjustments to accommodate said people. Just a side note that if you wish to attract seniors to your fair city then businesses must hire employees that are helpful, upbeat, cheerful, willing to go the extra mile to offer assistance, and get rid of those self checkouts, as all the seniors I know would rather deal with an upbeat cheerful clerk then a machine.

One thing that comes to mind . . . embrace the future. AKA tech.  
 
I don't know exactly what that means. However, making this city a suitable (cheaper?) alternative for growing companies to base out of could be a good start.  
We already have cutting edge internet accessibility thanks to forward-thinking ISP's, and fairly good technology education options starting in high school. Isn't it time to start trying to keep these students here (instead of just educating them to bring the talents to other localities?).  
 
Really, the whole of the prairie provinces could due to take a long look at their future preparedness. Now more than ever, there seems to be an increased tendency of putting all of the financial investments (eggs) into one currently very lucrative basket. However, the keyword there is CURRENTLY.  
 
Give it 15 or 20 years. The odds are better for the whole if these things are confronted ahead of time. But the changes are happening regardless.  
 
Edited by Simonwalcal, 2019-09-29 08:57:30

Every year ACC and Brandon University puts out high quality graduates. These people chose to get an education here.  
 
Connect the grads with businesses and investors so that they’ll stay and not be forced to look elsewhere.

One of the problems with attracting more people is that the housing stock, already in short supply, will be stretched even harder. This results in a sellers market and rising prices thus putting homes further out of reach of local folks.  
As a comparison look at Neepawa and surrounding area after Hylife brought in large numbers from abroad, homes that were in the 50k mark are now 150k+. Wages for the jobs available have not gone up anywhere near enough for youngsters to afford homes, rents have also increased vastly.  
By all means encourage business to come to Brandon, but do not spend tax dollars on subsidising the establishment of the business for what may only be a short period.  
Without adequate transport links to the larger cities it will always be a struggle to keep talent in the local area. Lack of a rail service, hourly to Winnipeg does not help.  
Just my ten cents worth.

Hourly rail service to Wpg? What? Even large cities in the west that are a similar distance apart don't have rail service from one to the other, much less hourly. In a mega city made up of many joined cities with exceedingly large populations, yes, but not others. Brandon-Wpg is not Toronto nor Vancouver. Nowhere close.  
 
Edited by Flutterby, 2019-09-29 12:33:02

Before even thinking of expanding Brandon population we need to deal with the crime and drug use here. We also need to have jobs avaiable for people you cant move somewhere and be without a job for 7+ years as i know some people here have been. We keep tearing down houses as well and putting condos/apartments up... I dont know about you all but i would rather own a home then a condo or apartment. There is probably more stuff to list but i cant think of it right now

Wouldn't we be better to think of ways that Brandon can continue to thrive without depending on additional growth? If population is decreasing due to the birth rate being less than replacement, won't all towns and municipalities in Canada, if not North America, be in the same situation? If so, won't attempting to increase our population by appealing to outside forces (more immigration, billionaire "benefactors", etc.) just result in a bidding way headed for the bottom? Maybe we should look at ways to make Brandon sustainable without outside "balancing factors"?